The advent of high-density electronic data servers has led to the mounting of as many as forty-two (42) servers in one cabinet, typically seven (7) feet high. This in turn has greatly increased the total heat load in such cabinets, reaching as high as ten (10) kilowatts, with attendant problems of maintaining acceptable working temperatures inside the cabinet. Without acceptable working temperatures, the life and reliability of the servers are reduced. Since these servers commonly handle large amounts of sensitive and valuable data, uncontrolled working temperatures are not acceptable, and steps to maintain the servers at a relatively cool and steady temperature are required.
One method of cooling server cabinets is to install the cabinets in rooms that are air conditioned and/or supplied with ducted, cooled air. There are, however, several disadvantages to this method. To begin with, energy is wasted since the whole room and the contents of the room must be cooled. In addition, because the cabinets are mounted in rows, the heated air which exits one row of cabinets adversely affects the temperature of adjacent rows of cabinets. Furthermore, upgrading existing installations by the addition of cabinets filled with high density servers may not be possible since the cooling capacity of existing room air-conditioning units may be exceeded. Also, with the shortages of available electrical power, the demand of new room air-conditioner systems may not be met by the public utility. Finally, floor-standing heat management units are sometimes provided in such rooms for cooling the air delivered to the cabinets. Such units, however, occupy valuable floor area that could be more profitably occupied by a server cabinet.
What is still desired, therefore, is a new and improved system for removing heat from a plurality of electronic assemblies, such as data servers. Such a system will preferably use available power more efficiently to cool the electronic devices. In particular, such a system will preferably cool only the interior portions of the cabinet, as opposed to entire rooms. In addition, such a system will preferably cool the interior portions of the cabinet independently of adjacent server cabinets or rows of server cabinets. Furthermore, such a system will preferably utilize floor area more efficiently, and more easily accommodate the upgrading of existing installations by the addition of server cabinets.